Many different driver assistance systems already exist for assisting a driver of a motor vehicle during a driving maneuver, particularly those which assist the driver during parking and during leaving a parking space. In this case, the distance from objects in the surroundings of the motor vehicle is measured with the aid of distance sensors. The sensors are usually located in the front region and in the rear region of the motor vehicle.
During active parking, especially during parking in perpendicular parking spaces, it is necessary to measure the surroundings laterally next to the motor vehicle repeatedly, in order, for example, to detect scenes such as vehicle-space-column-vehicle and the like.
In systems currently known, two additional sensors are provided for this in the rear region, having a direction of view which is aligned essentially transversely to the travel direction.
Moreover, systems are also known which use ultrasonic sensors for the registration of the surroundings, and in which detected objects in the near field are entered into a map, to assist the driver in navigating. By doing this, one is able to see a column, which has been detected by the front or rear sensors, and which could represent an obstacle while passing it during the driving maneuver, since the original position of the detected column remains stored during the complete vehicle motion.
If detected objects, which have been entered into the map, are located in the travel route envelope of the vehicle, the driver may be warned accordingly.
One method for detecting the surroundings during a driving maneuver, in which the surroundings are registered and a map of the surroundings is set up, is discussed in DE-A 10 2009 024 062 or in DE-A 10 2008 001 648. In this case, the surroundings map is stored in each case in such a way that objects in the surroundings of the vehicle may also be followed even when they vanish from the visual range of the sensors.
However, the disadvantage of the known methods is that, in order to set up the surroundings map, the surroundings of the vehicle first have to be registered. This, however, is first of all not possible, particularly during maneuvers for leaving a parking space. The surroundings map is able to be set up only during the process of leaving the parking space. In this case, there is the danger, however, that based on a curve traveled during leaving the parking space, an object laterally next to the vehicle is not detected. It is also of little help to use the surroundings map of parking since, particularly by the changing occupation of neighboring parking spaces, the surroundings may change during the parking of the motor vehicle.